The onset of hearing loss happens deceptively slow for most people, which makes losing your hearing much easier to get used to than fixing it. Something you’re poignantly aware of if the title of this article caught your attention. The decision to try hearing aids instead of coping with diminished hearing might have been big, but it was only the first step, now you’ve got to get comfortable wearing them.
If you’re wearing the hearing aids and wondering if you’ll ever be comfortable again, you might have a hearing aid that wasn’t designed for your unique hearing loss and lifestyle. The following information is designed to help you identify and solve your particular problem with your hearing.
The problem isn’t going away, and the solution might be closer than you think.
Depending on the type and amount of hearing loss you have, hearing aids can change how familiar sounds are perceived and increase the total number of sounds heard. Any sudden change in our hearing, especially the increased sharpness and volume hearing aids provide can be difficult at first. Keep reminding yourself that your natural hearing is impaired and fixing requires hearing more sounds at higher volume. Day by day the world of sound you hear through the hearing aids should become more familiar and easier to understand.
But for those of you who’ve put forth the effort, worn them for a week or two, and still don’t like the sound now is not the time to give up. Hearing aids are tools and, like most tools, come in performance/price levels. Getting the tool designed to handle the job means a better chance of getting the job done right.
Let’s start the process of finding a hearing aid capable meeting your expectations by identifying the 3 most common problems people have with new hearing aids, and offer solutions:
1 - “Hearing aids make all sounds, especially noise, too loud”
- Sounds in the frequencies inaudible to you without amplification will be abnormally loud at first with hearing aids. Take the hearing aids out for a short break every few hours during the first few days of acclimating to the new normal sound level.
- Exchange your hearing aids during the trial period for a model with:
- directional microphones
- upgraded noise reduction
- Volume adjustment, manual or by remote control
2 - “Tinny, or bad sound quality”
- The ability to hear high-frequencies is impaired by aging and loud noise. Restoring your ability to hear high frequencies adds clarity but takes some getting used too.
- Exchange your hearing aids during the trial period for a model that:
- Features a user adjustable tone control
- Can be programmed to your exact hearing loss
- Offers a premium sound quality
3 - “My ability to understand speech hasn’t improved”
- The brains of hearing impaired people shift unused cognitive resources away from the area of the brain that processes speech over time. Making formerly inaudible sounds loud enough to hear is only the first step in the helping the brain relearn to process the speech cues needed for discriminating speech. Expect it to take longer to get used to hearing aids the longer you put off treating your hearing loss.
- Exchange your hearing aids during the trial period for a model with:
- Premium sound quality
- Upgraded features such as frequency transfer
- Local service for face-to-face adjustments (by calling our support line 885-702-2740 and asking if we can refund your hearing aid order and refer you to a company that can get you the best prices on local service in your area)
4 - “Uncomfortable Physical Fit”
- The two big variables in getting a hearing aid to comfortably fit on the ear are tube length and dome diameter.
- Tubes - Taller people usually need the longest length tubes, the medium length tubes fit the majority of adults, and the shortest length tubes are people with small ears. For additional information, go to our extensive Tube section.
- Domes – Domes used with hearing aids are soft and pliable but ear canals are super sensitive. Too big of a dome will eventually cause an earache and too small of a dome can move too much and cause noise. Fortunately, domes are easily user-changeable. Domes in a variety of diameters come with a new hearing aid purchase. For additional information, go to our extensive Dome section.
- Almost any physical fit issues can be resolved quickly with a phone call to our Customer Service Department at 885-702-2740
The key to successfully addressing a specific hearing loss is choosing a hearing aid with the features designed to solve the specific problem or set of problems associated with each individual’s unique hearing loss and lifestyle. Unfortunately, this task is complicated by advertising information that can be confusing. Our hearing aid technicians undergo constant training and can discuss anything from basic hearing aids to premium hearing aid models, and even refer you for local service at a far lower cost than available elsewhere.
If your goal is to find the most affordable, but capable hearing aids, at the right price all you have to do is ask.